Commentary

Co-opetition

I recently met the CEO of hip-hop video destination site SandboxTV, Manu Lawrence, a dreadlocked fellow who, in the course of conversation, used many interesting terms that I was not familiar with.
"Co-opetition" was my favorite. I figured it was some form of radical slang. What would I know -- I'm a 55-year-old, Caucasian male, who is married, lives a sylvan existence, has a son who just
graduated from elementary school and a golden retriever. Instead, it turns out that the term was originally coined by a Harvard professor, Raymond Noorda, and later expanded upon in the 1996 book
"Co-Opetition" by Adam Brandenburger and Barry Nalebuff. You've got to love a guy who can back up his terminology with sources, dates, authors and title.

According to the encyclopedia of free
commerce, as quoted by Manu, "Co-opetition is a term combining the words cooperation and competition, and refers to the arrangement between competing firms to cooperate on specific projects or in
certain areas of business for mutual benefit, even while remaining competitors in general."

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What a perfect term to describe many of the recent deals that have taken place amongst mortal media
enemies. To name a few: